Standardised on 100,000 children, these easy-to-use assessments help you to accurately measure how your school and your students are performing in English, maths and science – student by student, class by class and year by year.

The Progress Test Series (PT Series) helps you to provide a clear, accurate baseline and to understand key gaps in a cohort’s learning. On returning to school, the insights gained from the PT Series will help you to plan for the new curriculum and to understand the current level of attainment of your students.

The PT Series can be taken in the Autumn term to help with baselining and, in this unusual year, GL Education will provide you with clear analysis of the data and national trends, in a series of webinars at the end of the Autumn term 2020. Schools can then assess again in the Summer term 2021 to measure progress made over the academic year.

Tests are available for:

Progress Test in English (PTE)
Assess students’ technical English skills (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and reading comprehension.

Progress Test in Maths (PTM)
Monitor students’ mathematical skills and knowledge, in areas such as number, shape, data handling and algebra, as well as their mathematical reasoning and problem solving skills.

Progress Test in Science (PTS)
Measure two dimensions of science learning: science content knowledge and understanding, and working scientifically (applying science skills).

The Progress Tests provide robust and reliable data that measures your students’ knowledge, understanding and application of the core subjects:

1. English: focuses on grammar, punctuation and spelling, and on reading comprehension, using age-appropriate fiction and information texts.
2. Maths: assesses key aspect of maths appropriate to the age of the student including mental maths for those aged 8 and over.
3. Science: measures two dimensions of science learning, understanding of science content, and working scientifically (application of skills).

You can use this information to:

• Monitor progress year-on-year
• Support teachers’ professional development
• Communicate with parents and other stakeholders

You can also use the CAT4 Combination Report to assess a student’s potential against their current attainment, supporting the identification of barriers to learning.

The PT Series can be used as a first step in baselining students in September 2020 or at the right time for you after they return. 

The reports will identify curriculum content areas with low scores – this may be due to the content not being covered or because it was covered during the period of remote online learning and the individual, group or class has not understood this area of content.

In this unusual year, GL Education will provide you with clear analysis of the data in a series of webinars at the end of the Autumn term 2020

When using the Progress Tests in the Autumn term, please note the following:

• The Standard Age Score may not be as useful as it is based on a Summer standardisation and students will be older if they take the assessment in Autumn. 
• The Standard Age Score will also not be as useful if students did not complete the test or were unable to answer a large number of questions because they had not covered the content. 
• The progress measures are based on the Standard Age Score, so these may be of less value this year. Schools will therefore not be able to measure their progress from Summer 2019 to Autumn 2020. However, GL Assessment will be able to provide a useful analysis of how your students have performed in Autumn 2020 which will help and enable progress to be calculated from this time to Summer 2021.